Lt. Col. Carlisle

Lt. Col. Mary Carlisle, 579th Medical Group, shakes hands with U.S. Navy Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, following her speech at the Vietnam Memorial on Memorial Day. Colonel Carlisle has held several clinical, educational and leadership positions at various assignments including medical surgical, critical care, ambulatory surgery and emergency services. She was deployed as a critical care nurse with the Expeditionary Medical Support unit to Masirah Air Base, Oman, to support Operation Enduring Freedom in 2001 and 2002; and to the Air Force theater hospital at Balad Air Base, Iraq, to support Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2007. She sought care for post-traumatic stress disorder after returning from Iraq and was profiled in the Real Warriors Campaign as a person seeking healing for the mental and emotional costs of war. (U.S. Air Force photo by Marilyn Holliday)